


I Love You, Idiot

by AppleTeeth



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Silly Arguments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-11
Updated: 2013-10-11
Packaged: 2017-12-29 03:43:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1000467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AppleTeeth/pseuds/AppleTeeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermann makes the decision to ask Newton to marry him. Newton doesn't take it very well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Love You, Idiot

**Author's Note:**

> I was crying over the wedding episode of Parks and Rec and wanted to write a mushy fic for Newt and Hermann. Then I decided it was more fun to write them fighting in-between the mushy stuff.

Hermann asked first. Everyone expected it to be Newton, seeing as he was the one who was inclined to introduce his boyfriend to everyone and anyone they met with:

“Hello, have you met my boyfriend Dr Gottlieb? Don’t let his pale, fay exterior fool you; he’s a jackhammer in the sack.”

Hermann had thought about it long and hard, and decided that if he had agreed to put up with Newton’s eccentricities (amongst other things, his late-night jam sessions, his high-pitched screaming at scary movies and his goddamned dirty socks everywhere), then he might as well seal his fate and make it official.

He spent several months planning and designing the perfect item to show his affections. Newton didn’t wear rings much due to his work (apart from his stupid pinkie ring that he had won that at a carnival or something so he didn’t care if that got covered in kaiju guts), so he thought about getting him something different from the traditional. After Newton had sent him a cutting from a high-end fashion magazine about kaiju skin becoming the ‘most exclusive leather’, he finally had an idea of what he could do to show his love. 

(This did mean that Hermann had to make contact and strike a deal with Hannibal Chau, but seeing as payment involved actual money instead of being thrown to the kaijus, he was fine to get involved with the maniac.)

Hermann sprung the question on Newton during a lovely Sunday lazing around the house, watching old Godzilla movies and squabbling over who had to wash up after lunch. He didn’t plan to ask that day, but it just seemed right when they were both so happy and for once, so peaceful.

Sadly, this caused possibly one of their biggest fights following the end of the war.

“You’re asking me?” Newton asked, glaring down at Hermann who was balancing on one knee, holding up the costume-made leather bracelet made from real kaiju skin and the words, ‘I love you, idiot’ embossed on the inside.

“Yes…” Hermann replied slowly.

“You. Are asking. Me?” The emphasis was punctuated with Newton jabbing his finger into Hermann’s chest. “I can’t believe you would fucking do that to me!”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Hermann asked angrily. He tried to get up again and after a moment of struggle, Newton instinctively grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet.

“I was going to ask you, dude!”

“What? Since when?”

“Uh, since forever! I was making a ring! Dude, I’ve been working on that for like a year!”

“And you’re mad at me because I got there first?” Hermann demanded. “Well this is bloody typical, isn’t it? Only Newton Geiszler would be angry at someone for asking their hand in marriage! No, no, this is your show and you have to do everything your way!”

“I asked you if you were going to ask me and you said you didn’t want to marry me yet!”

“You asked me that two weeks after we started dating, you absolute cretin!”

Newton walked out of the living room and Hermann followed him, thinking Newton was walking away from an argument and he would not allow that. 

“Hey, we’re not finished yet!” he called after his boyfriend, and grabbed his cane both for support and to jab in Newton’s ungrateful eye.

He followed Newton into the garage, which doubled up as a music room, workshop and general place to store items Hermann refused to have in the living area of their house. Newton rummaged around in his tool box and pulled out a cloth, thrusting it into Hermann’s hand with a glower. 

Hermann looked at him in disdain for a moment before realising the cloth was weighted. He opened it up and found inside a gold ring, still needing to be polished, but fit perfectly for his finger and inscribed with tiny computer code. It was hard to read, but it was clearly one of Hermann’s codes used during the initial stages of the Pons systems. 

“See? I took a fucking class in goldsmithing for you! You ruin everything!” He punched his work station for good measure.

Hermann turned it over in his hands.

“It’s lovely, Newton.”

“It’s fucking gorgeous!”

“And you can give it to someone else. I’m not dealing with your ego or your need to be first in everything.”

Hermann threw both the bracelet and the ring onto the floor before turning on his heel and walking out of the house. 

\--------------------------

Mako was more than happy to pick up when she saw Hermann’s number appear on her phone, despite the time of night he called. Whilst she was now living with Raleigh in a beautiful house in Nikko and Hermann and Newt were living in Munich, they still tried to keep in touch with each other and all the other members of the Still Alive Big Damn Heroes club. Hermann was better at actual correspondence than Newton, but Newton did send care packages every month or so of chocolates, plush toys, good locally brewed beer and anything else he thought they might enjoy now the world was guaranteed to keep spinning.

“Oh Hermann, I’m so sorry,” she said kindly after Hermann had explained what had happened.

“I just wanted it to be perfect,” he said, half-muffled from his hand covering his face. He hadn’t gone far - just taken the tram to the Nymphenburg Palace gardens, which was a frequent hideout he went to when he needed to collect his thoughts and on occasion escape from Newton. 

“He can be stubborn and insensitive, we all know that. But his actions come from a desperate need to be loved. I know that’s not a good excuse, but he just gets it wrong when he tries too hard.”

“The man is insufferable. He thinks I can just read his mind, like we’re still drifting, and figure out what he wants. It’s always about him. He just whined about the stupid ring he has been making for me for over a year! As if he couldn't have finished it any sooner, had he actually wanted to marry me.”

There was a long pause, and Hermann pulled the phone away from his ear to check if the line had been cut off. Finally, Mako breathed a heavy sigh.

“I don’t know if I should tell you this, but… he told me about the goldsmithing classes. You know he is gifted in so many skills.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” he said irritably.

“Well… it was a disaster. He was telling me how he couldn’t follow the teacher - not even with the most simple instructions and he ruined all his work. He didn’t say explicitly but it was clear he was so nervous because he was making a ring for you. If you say the ring was unfinished, it’s because he’s still working on it. He’s so scared of ruining something he wants you to wear for the rest of your life, he can’t abide it being less than perfect.”

Hermann felt his stomach drop down like he had been dropped out of a plane.

“Mako, don’t tell me that…” he said sadly. “Oh goddamn that man, why didn’t he tell me?”

“The same reason you didn’t tell him you were striking a deal with Hannibal Chau for a one-of-a-kind bracelet made from kaiju skin. You both wanted it to be special. I think,” and she laughed softly, “you’re both guilty of trying to impress each other too much.”

Hermann nodded to himself. 

“But,” she interjected. “He was being an insufferable, selfish idiot. So you can be forgiven for throwing it back in his face.”

“That… offers me no comfort.”

“Then just go back to him and make up. And get married before you kill each other.”

\-------------------------

Hermann agreed to come home after Newton sent the sort of text that probably took him hours to write. It was short but so very carefully written, Hermann could practically hear the desperation and regret behind it. 

He entered the house to find Newton sitting at their breakfast nook, looking all sorts of miserable, from his crumpled clothing to his bloodshot eyes. He immediately held up his wrist to show the leather bracelet had pride of place and hopped down to meet Hermann by the doorway.

“I will,” he said, and his voice sounded more than a little raw. “I’m sorry, I will. I’m sorry I screw up everything and I get competitive and my mouth runs off when I get nervous…”

“Sshh,” Hermann said kindly, and threaded his fingers through Newton’s hair at the back of his head, pulling him in to hold him. “It’s fine. I’m just glad you’re saying yes, that’s all that matters.”

Newton nodded, his face pressed into Hermann’s shoulder.

“Can I have the ring?”

“It’s not finished,” Newton mumbled miserably. “I can’t get the fucking thing completely round. And the coding isn’t perfect. My embossing is terrible. And I need to get a professional to polish it because I will ruin it.”

“I don’t care, I want to wear it. Both to show I’m yours and that Newton Geiszler failed miserably at something, just once. And only because he’s completely smitten by me.”

“That’s… actually probably the best gift I could give you, isn’t it?”

“Damn right it is,” he smiled, before he closed the gap between them and kissed his fiancé.


End file.
